El Paso County Sheriff's Office budget expected to be $2.6 million less

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office budget could be reduced by $2.6 million for the upcoming fiscal year, officials said Tuesday during a budget workshop.

The potential $101.4 million budget is the largest in El Paso County and must be finalized, along with the entire El Paso County budget, before Oct. 1.

Sheriff Richard Wiles said the reason for a lower budget is because his office is spending about 80 percent less on overtime hours.

"That's from scheduling and staffing changes that we have made over the last few months to help reduce overtime in the jails," Wiles said. "We've been researching this for years, looking at different plans, contract and things of that nature to help implement that and put it in motion. So far we have seen some really positive results and we are hoping those carry through for the upcoming year."

The sheriff's office looked at rearranging staff, keeping vacancies open and switching detention officers from an 8-hour shift to a 12-hour shift.

"We're seeing a substantial reduction in overtime," Wiles said. "The auditors have estimated that it is $2.6 million in savings from this last fiscal year. Assuming that the figures hold true for the full year, we think we can maintain that savings and maybe look at some other areas to cut costs."

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Commissioner Vince Perez, who has been critical of the sheriff's budget in the past, said the sheriff has taken many steps in the right direction with the lower budget, but he is still focused on trying figure out a way to save.

Perez said it costs about $72 million a year to incarcerate inmates in El Paso County. For that much, El Paso could build a brand new Triple-A baseball stadium each year, he said.

"It takes up a lot of our budget, compared to other counties in Texas," Perez said. "A lot of my focus has been on how much it costs to incarcerate people here."

There is also a large difference between the Downtown jail and El Paso County Annex in Far East El Paso. Perez said each inmates costs the county about $100 a night downtown compared to $65 a night at the annex.

Perez and Wiles both said that the way the downtown jail was constructed forces the sheriff to use additional officers.

Wiles also attributes his large budget to a contract agreement with the county and the distance between El Paso County and state prisons.

"For other communities in East Texas it takes a day to transport inmates to prisons and for us it takes three days," Wiles said. "That is a significant cost for El Paso taxpayers."

The commissioners and sheriff are expected to discuss the jails and sheriff's budget more before the final 2015 fiscal year budget is adopted.

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